


Robotic rails

by JotunVali



Series: During Canon Stobotnik [2]
Category: Sonic the Hedgehog (2020)
Genre: Anxiety Disorder, Fluff and Angst, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Self-Harm, Unhealthy Coping Mechanisms, Veins slitting, Wrists
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-07
Updated: 2020-06-08
Packaged: 2021-03-04 04:07:07
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,933
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24597217
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JotunVali/pseuds/JotunVali
Summary: Stone slept with his beloved doctor. He discovers something horrible when he wakes up.
Relationships: Dr. Eggman | Dr. Robotnik/Agent Stone
Series: During Canon Stobotnik [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1778038
Comments: 11
Kudos: 47





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Sort-of sequel of "Cry to sleep" but you don't need to read it to understand that story.

Stone woke up the first. For once. Robotnik had let him sleep with him in his bed. Stone would never have believed it if someone had told him that a few days ago, or even the day before. The latte agent softly smiled then, in the shimmering dawn light, noticed the scarlet bags under the doctor’s eyes. He had cried, sobbed to sleep again. Stone sighed in disappointment. At himself. His presence hadn’t been enough to zap out the fears of his beloved. It even had worsened the nightly sobs of his boss. But at least he had slept. Both of them. And Robotnik hadn’t kicked him out of bed. Stone gently caressed the sleepy doctor’s cheek with the back of his hand, then intended to kiss the hand resting on the pillow. But an ugly, ghastly thing prevented Stone from hand-kissing. He’d never seen it before because of the darkness the night before and because Robotnik always wore his keyboard gloves. All the time. Stone had never seen him without his gloves, actually. Now he knew why. 

Scars.

Horrendous, monstrous, frightening, countless scars on Robotnik’s wrist. And probably on the other wrist too.

A lot of them looked freshed. Slashed over thinner, darker slits.

When did he do it? Yesterday? Where was Stone at that time? How often did he do it? Since when? How come Stone never noticed it?

The troubled agent tried to catch his erratic breath which had switched off at the gloomy sight. 

_ Alright, Stone. Calm down. Breathe in. Breathe out. _

Then, he carefully took the hand, trying to avoid waking up the doctor. Took a closer look at it. He wanted to cry. So many, so many rails of so different shapes, sizes and shades of red ruining the doctor’s beautiful skin. As if their goal was to corrode, gnaw away Robotnik’s hand. Except it was Robotnik’s own goal. Or so it seemed. Stone was so busy grieving he didn’t noticed the doctor was waking up.

_ Stone? Why is he in my bed?  _ Drowsy Robotnik wondered. _ Why is he crying? What is he looking a-? Oh shit! _

He swiftly dashed away his hand from his weeping assistant and hid it in his other hand.

“What did you see?” He asked in a flat, commanding tone.

“S-Sir, I swear iI didn’t intend to-”

“I have no care in the world for your intentions, Stone! I want to know what you’ve just seen!” Robotnik demanded.

“... rails. Slits. Slashes.” Stone whimpered. “Terrible, terrible slashes…”

Fuck. Fuck! FUCK! Now Stone knew ALL of his weaknesses and darkest, most shameful secrets! What was his closest agent going to do? Loudly laugh his heart out at him? For being such a sham of a scientist, such a living joke, such a weak and puny and whiny trashbag? Was Stone going to feel betrayed? To scold Robotnik for deceiving him in such a repulsive way, making him believe he was a strong, tough, powerful, omnipotent, untouchable and superior being while he was just a worthless, weak, insecure, crazy, unstable and unable to control his own emotions poof? Or was Stone going to get scared to death and understandably run away?? 

Stone only stuck to sobbing his sweet glittery eyes out.

“I’m sorry. I… I didn’t know, sir.” He helplessly apologized, his eyes and voice full of sorrow.

“What exactly didn’t you know, agent?” Robotnik boiled up. “Except, oh let me think a little while, almost everything?? Please be a bit more precise, if that’s a doable action to you, which I sky-highly doubt! Clear up your swampy, mirky words and enlighten my neural bulbs, though it’d be a daunting, impossible task to you because  _ I  _ already know everything and  _ you  _ don’t know no shit, Stone! Just like the rest of you stupid, brainless, mindless humans! Listing the things you actually know would take an exponentially, tremendously much shorter time! Just about a few microseconds, and  _ only  _ because I’m in a generous mood today!” That long screaming tore off a few teardrops from the corner of his blazing eyes.

_ Gówno _ . _ What if he tells everyone?? _ Robotnik cursed in his mother tongue for the first in a long time.  _ But no. He won’t. He already promised he wouldn’t tell anyone about our night together. But repeated acts of self-harm are a way more difficult secret to keep or lie about, aren’t they?  _

Stone jumped on him and squeezed him tight. The doctor could hear him sob and whimper. Strangely, Robotnik didn’t like hearing Stone cry. Like, not at all.

“Please, doctor… don’t do that again! Please… in the name of God or your robots, sir… Stop doing that!” Stone implored.

“Watch your tongue, Stone. You don’t… get to command me.” Robotnik stammered in confusion. He didn’t understand his cutie of an assistant’s reaction. Just like the night before. When he admitted to Stone last night he’d always felt lonely and unhappy in his life, Stone had behaved exactly like this. Hugs and wailing. Memories of last night began to come out. He’d let Stone kiss him. He had kissed Stone back! He had burst into screeching tears when Stone told him… Stone had told him “I love you”. Robotnik’s heart softly fluttered. 

“Oh dear God, I didn’t know you were so sad, doctor! I’m sorry! I’m so sorry!” The sweetest agent ever sobbed his innocent heart out.

“Don’t be sorry for not knowing, Stone.” Robotnik groaned. “It’s hardly your first time.”

“But… but I’m with you all the time! I… I should have noticed something! I should… I should have done something! Instead, I-”

“And ruin my efforts to hide it and uncover the best guarded secret of the great Dr Robotnik? Don’t be conceited in addition of stupid, agent.”

“W-why?? Why would you keep that to yourself??” Stone wailed. “Why would you suffer, why do you persist in suffering so much on your own? H-how long have you been doing that? Why did you never tell me??”

“In your basic, worthless opinion, Stone??” Robotnik screamed and pushed away his weeping assistant.

Stone stared at him with wide, glassy, terrified eyes. Something in the doctor’s heart cracked.

“B-but… I never, I… I  _ never  _ would have told anyone, doctor!” Stone desperately expelled. “W-why would I do it?” He whined.

“Accidents always happen, Stone.” Robotnik mumbled.

Stone miserably whimpered and vividly shook his head off.

“NO!” He shrieked out. “I never-! I would  _ NEVER  _ betray your trust in such an atrocious way!! You… you  _ know  _ that, don’t you?” He pleaded his boss before bursting into bitter, uncontrollable tears again.

Now, Robotnik was the one who craved and yearned to hug someone really, really tight.

“I could’ve… I could help you…” Stone wept. “Let me try to help you…” A faint hiccup cut off his breathing. “Last night you said… you said you didn’t want to be alone… tha-that I made you happy!... If… if that’s true, sir… please… I’m begging you… let me help.” He implored his doctor.

“I don’t want to be helped.” Robotnik snarled.


	2. Chapter 2

“I don’t want to be helped.”

Stone received that response as a hammer blow right into his face.

“Do yo- do you like to… torture your wrists? You  _ like  _ that??” He dreaded.

“I warn you, you should change that tone at once, Stone.” Robotnik furiously gritted his teeth.

“Or what?? You’re gonna slash open  _ my  _ wrists too??” Stone challenged him.

“How dare you!!” Robotnik exploded. “Do you think I’m a monster, Stone?? Do you think I’m a… deviant, abnormal, creepy monster? That’s how  _ you  _ see me too??”

_ Too? _ Stone noted. 

“No, I don’t! I don’t see you like…  _ that  _ at all! Why would I have spent the night with you, then?” He reminded the disheveled doctor. “Why would I… have hugged you all night long? Caressed you? Kissed you? Gladly, happily accepted  _ your  _ hugs and kiss?” Tears rolled down his damp face. He covered it with his hands. Started to sob again. 

The doctor suddenly remembered the kiss. That soft, warm, gentle kiss. Stone crying for him and his anxiety problems. Stone’s warm embrace. Stone’s pretty eyes. Stone’s promises. Stone’s kisses. Stone’s “I love you.” Stone’s “I love you” that had sounded so real, so honest, so true! Robotnik bit his lower lip.

“I could, I  _ would  _ never inflict on your body what I do on mine, Stone.” He softly murmured.

“Why do you do it on  _ your  _ body, then?” Stone demanded. “Why do you like it on you and not on me?... We both have human, organic, blood-full bodies after all.” He lamented.

“Because I-!”

_ Because I don’t want to hurt you!  _

“Cause what?” Stone whined.

“Because I don’t want to hurt you.” The doctor plainly and simply answered. No lie. No drama. No artifice. Just plain truth.

“And I don’t want you to hurt yourself!” Stone exclaimed. “I don’t want you to be... scared or wounded!” He cried out.

“What if  _ I _ want it, Stone?”

“Well I’d tell you it’s pure bullshit, sir! No one willingly desires to be hurt or scared!”

“What if hurting myself is the only  _ bullshit  _ I’ve figured out to stop feeling scared??” Robotnik raged out. “5 doctorates, an exceptional top-class scientific brain…” He pointed at his temple. “...and all I’ve figured out to stop feeling like shitting my pants 24/7 is to slit open my veins.” 

Stone carefully knelt closer and took him in his arms.

“Then let’s find a… more clever way to chase away your fears, doctor.” He suggested in a tearful voice.

“Hugging and cuddling is  _ not  _ clever. You can hug me and pamper me all you want, Stone… it’s not really the most efficient therapy to eradicate a lifelong case of severe anxiety. Let alone on someone like me… who’s never been into touching people.” Robotnik grumbled though he couldn’t help feeling good in his warm assistant’s arms.

“I can’t think of anything else, sir!” Stone whimpered, helpless.

“Of course you can’t.”

Robotnik gave up. He was tired. Tired of restless nights, tired of chasing aliens and dissolving countries, tired of playing the arrogant, self-confident, in control, almighty clown everyday. All this shit pumped up all of his energy harder and harder everyday. He sighed.

“Too many, too strong emotions clashing against each other inside my head, Stone… Too many fears… Harming myself, spilling my own blood, pointlessly risking my life… it’s the only thing that manages to make me focus on only one problem at a time. I can only thing of the immediate, of the real danger. Not at all about all my other problems, most of them fantasized. Cursed anxiety makes you invent loads of imaginary problems, Stone. Problems you wouldn’t have if she wasn’t there. Like a… vicious cycle. Nothing else matters. Only the blood and the possibility you might die at any moment. Bizarrely, it’s the most relaxing shit ever. Reminds you of the most important matters, that you actually do not despise your life that much.”

“Oh doctor…” Stone wept. “Since when have you been… feeling so low?”

“For once,... I wish I knew, Stone.”

“Well… next time you feel… “relaxing”,... please call me. Ok? I-I don’t claim my hugs are more effective than… your method but… I-I can’t… I can’t let you harm yourself, sir. Just… can’t.”

Robotnik remembered the warm and loving hug from last night. His mind had turned empty of all thoughts and emotions save for a warm feeling of bliss and content. He sourly smiled. 

“Do you take yourself for my dead mother, Stone? Either way, I remind you that you can’t afford to act friendly and affectionate towards me. Our employers might…”

“Put me down. Yes I remember, sir. But is letting you... scarify your wrists and bleed out good for the mission? Wouldn’t it… improve our chances to succeed in our mission if… if you stopped hurting yourself?”

“Again with your irritating rhetoric, Stone…”

“But you know I’m right, sir!” The concerned agent insisted.

“I know you’re the most stubborn, irksome, obstinate, annoying, nagging, pestering, caring, lovable, adorable, kind-hearted, wonderful being I’ve ever had the repulsion to meet!” Robotnik cried out as his eyesight started to blur.

Stone’s heart sharply threw itself against his ribs, craving to pop out. He refrained from crying out of pure joy. 

“And I know… I know you’re  _ not  _ a monster, doctor. You’re often impressive and… and intimidating, that’s true but… you’re not, I’ve never,  _ ever  _ thought once you were a monster! You’re… different and special yes, but-”

Robotnik cut him off with a fiery, passionate kiss. Stone happily responded. It was a bit more aggressive than last night but Stone didn’t mind. He would love his doctor’s every way of kissing. 

“I love you Doctor Robotnik! I love you so much!” He cried out.

The doctor replied with another ardent kiss.

“And I wish to live my whole life with you, Basic Agent Stone.” He admitted before worshipping the mouth of his cute assistant again.


	3. Chapter 3

After a moment, they finally parted. And panted.

Stone gazed at the doctor with awe and clear adoration in his beautiful eyes. And that insufferable, adorable grin illuminating his handsome, glowing face again! If only Robotnik could ever sincerely, wholeheartedly smile like that… He surprised himself cupping Stone’s damp, rough, but warm, so warm and soft cheek. His smiling assistant beamed even more, took the doctor’s hand and longingly kissed the palm. Then, he glanced at the crimson stripes on Robotnik’s wrist with a sorry, shattered look. And softly, tenderly kissed them. Once. Twice. Over and over. Lovingly, gently. As if Stone believed that if he kissed them with a true love kiss, they would fade away. 

_ Stupid, naive Stone. _

No, it would take a lot of time for them to disappear. Maybe they never would. But nonetheless, these soft, warm and tender kisses were making some other scars slowly heal and fade. Scars as serious, if not more than physical wounds.

“Sorry…” Stone whimpered. “I know it’s… foolish. Wounds don’t heal that way.”

“Maybe some do, Stone.” Robotnik softly implied.

“Wha-? Ah.” Stone adorably beamed again. “I never knew you also were a gifted poet, sir.”

“You know nothing, agent Stone.”

“Is that… a Game of Thrones reference, sir?” Stone frowned, not sure if he should feel shocked or delighted.

“I do what I want of my leisure time, Stone.” Robotnik retorted.

“ _ You _ have leisure time?” Stone teased.

“You’d be surprised.” Robotnik answered.

“I’m always surprised when I’m with you, doctor. In a…” He looked at the slashed wrists. “... bad way as in a good way. Luckily, the good overtake the bad.” He smiled. “I’m not even sure… you realize how incredible, how amazing you are.”

“You’re always here to remind me, aren’t you?” The doctor took up his chin.

Stone sweetly chuckled.

“Is it why you keep me, sir?”

“Since you’re on a good, straight way to uncover all my secrets, Stone… I’ll tell you one.”

“Really?” His cute assistant sounded excited.

“You’re the only one person, the only one being I feel… fine with. Safe with… Good with. You... saving my life the day we met... kinda helped.”

“Oh doctor…” Stone beamed and swooned first, the hand of the doctor still wrapped into his own, to quickly switch to sadness and regret. “Oh doctor…” He lamented. “So, it’s… worse than I thought, isn’t it?”

“What?” Robotnik squinted. “I’ve just said you’re special to me! Don’t you feel happy or flattered?”

“Why should I feel happy or flattered at that? It means that except me you’re scared of everyone. That you have… a serious, a severe social anxiety. That must feel… awful! And I just have to look at your wrists to guess ho- ugh. Why should I feel happy at the suffering of the man I love?” Stone exclaimed.

Robotnik glomped him.

“You’re not real, Stone.” He murmured in disbelief. “You don’t exist. I just… can’t believe you exist. It’s impossible. No existing human being can be so… so kind-hearted, so pure… it’s just-! It just  _ can’t  _ be. I’ve never existed but you Stone, you… you exist even  _ less  _ than me. You’re just a… a product of the invasive imagination of a nonexistent crazy guy.”

“I’m here and I do exist, doctor.” Stone tenderly hugged him back.

The eyes of the blessed scientist watered again. He rubbed them on his sweet agent’s shoulder. He sighed.

“Always be here, Stone…” He lowly pleaded.

“I’ve no reason to go elsewhere, my love.” Stone kindly whispered. “I swear I’ll always be by your side.”

“Instead of shallowly swearing, promise me one thing, sweet muffin.” Robotnik stared into his eyes.

_ Mu-muffin?  _ The latte agent blushed.

“When I’m about the catch our so-called blue devil, in other words, next time I go out achieving my mission, do not, under no pretext, do NOT assist me. Do NOT be in my way!”

“Wha-? But sir, I-!” Stone protested.

“If you’re around, you’ll think only about my safety and screw it all up, I dare you to claim otherwise.”

Stone remained mute.

“And I can’t have, I  _ won’t  _ have that, Stone. You hear me?”

“Yes, doctor.” Stone pitifully nodded.

“No way I’ll let our employers take you away, hurt you or just touch you at all. Just. Keep. Away.” 

“Yes, doctor.” Stone mumbled.

At the sorrowful expression on his cute assistant’s face, Robotnik couldn’t help taking his chin again, lifting it and softly kissing him. Then, he whispered right into Stone’s ear:

“I love you, Latte-chan. Now make me a steamed goat-milked coffee.”

_ La-Latte-chan?? _

Stone could have sworn it was his face that was presently hot and fogged with steam.


End file.
